Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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124. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount spent by the State in purchasing carbon credits in each of the past five years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36265/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Under the EU Effort Sharing Decision (ESD), Ireland has annual emission limits for the period 2013 to 2020. These targets cover emissions from sectors outside of the EU Emissions Trading System, such as agriculture, transport, buildings and waste. Ireland can comply with its targets via emissions reduction policies; purchase of international credits; and purchase of surplus allowances from other Member States. As the designated purchasing agent on behalf of the State, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) administers and manages purchases of carbon credits. Details of all transactions entered into by the NTMA are published annually in a Carbon Fund Report at www.ntma.ie in accordance with section 6 of the Carbon Fund Act 2007.

In order to comply with targets under the ESD, since 2016 Ireland has spent €2.1m purchasing additional credits. These are in the form of direct market transactions and payments to three multilateral carbon funds, which support overseas projects to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

The table below details the level of expenditure by the State on the multilateral funds and direct market transactions in the period between 2016 and 2020. All amounts are in millions of euro.

Ireland currently holds a total of 7,563,846 international credits which are eligible for ESD compliance. The latest greenhouse gas emissions projections, published by the Environmental Protection Agency in June 2021, indicate that Ireland will cumulatively exceed the 2019 and 2020 annual targets by approximately 12.25Mt. Ireland will, therefore, need to purchase additional credits to meet the projected shortfall.

Any requirement to use already purchased or additional credits for compliance under the ESD will be undertaken in accordance with all relevant regulations as set out by the European Union, the European Commission, the United Nations and all relevant international agreements.